The MerVal index of leading shares .MERV ended steady at 1,185.92, hovering near its lowest since November 2004. The index shed more than 12 percent on Wednesday, suffering its biggest one-day drop in 10 years, and is down 45 percent since the start of the year.

“We had a volatile day in which the MerVal recovered from session lows thanks to Tenaris and Petrobras,” said Augusto Farina, a trader at Amirante Galitis brokerage.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI closed up 4.68 percent on Thursday after falling by a similar amount earlier in the session.

In Argentina, gains were seen in the local unit of Brazil’s Petrobras, Petrobras Energia Participaciones PCH.BA, which surged 16.3 percent to 2.85 pesos a share, and in Tenaris (TENA.BA), which rose 2.5 percent to 37.55 pesos a share.